1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices used to hold pilot flight documents, particularly to a flight documents holder which releasably fastens to the column of the control yoke of an airplane, and, more particularly, to a flight document holder which is structured to hold the flight documents in an organized manner which allows for ready access thereto by a pilot without interfering with control of the airplane or concealing any flight instruments or devices from the pilot.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that pilots must routinely consult pre-flight checklists, flight charts, approach plates, and other various flight operations documents, while operating an airplane. Because of both the number and awkwardness of use of these documents, it has proven difficult for pilots to comfortably and effectively consult these documents as the need arises.
In the prior art there are two classes of devices which have been developed which attempt to address the problem of facilitating document access by pilots.
The first class of devices are those which are strapped onto one thigh of the pilot by use of an adjustable strap. These devices generally have a document holder in the form of a flat base which is interconnected with the adjustable strap. A hinged plate may be included which acts as a divider between two documents only, and a pencil holder may also be included. These devices suffer from the discomfort and excessive bother associated with having to strap on and strap off the device. Additionally, these devices suffer from the fact that the pilot must continually look down at his thigh to read the documents, when he should rather be looking in a forward direction toward the instruments and windshield. Further, these devices require document manipulations which necessitate the pilot's hands being taken away from the controls. Consequently, it is considered that this class of devices does not adequately solve the problem of how to facilitate document access by pilots.
The second class of devices are those which utilize a clipboard that attaches to the column of the control yoke of the airplane. This class of devices have a releasable attachment mechanism that secures the device to the column. An adjustable arm extends outwardly from the attachment mechanism, ending in a flat board having clips for holding documents. While this class of devices better serves to solve the problem of facilitating document access by pilots, structures devised thus far do not provide for management of multiple documents, in that retrieval of a particular document is cumbersome because frequent shuffling and removal of documents from the clip require the use of both hands in order to access a selected document: one hand holds onto the board and releases pressure of the clip, while the other hand manipulates the documents. As in the first class of devices cited above, both of the pilot's hands are away from the controls. Thus, the problem remains of disorganization of the documents by flight's end, as well as the continual problem of shuffled or removed documents obscuring portions of the instrument panel, which can lead to potential in-flight safety hazards.
What is needed, therefore, is a device which is structured so as to permit organized management of multiple flight documents so that the pilot may easily sort through a number of documents without releasing control of the airplane, without losing sight of the instrument panel, and without any of the documents ever needing to be removed or ever obscuring the instruments.